The sound of a bone saw cutting through a monster's skullcap is strangely similar to a dentist working on a molar. It’s a high-pitched whine, followed by the smell of burnt calcium.

  To me, it’s the sound of progress.

  "We're almost there," I murmured, holding the Wyvern's head steady while Luna operated the saw with an expression of focused nausea. "Two more centimeters and we expose the frontal lobe. Watch out for the dura mater. If we rupture the meningeal sac, the evidence turns to soup."

  "Doctor, people are coming," Luna warned, shutting off the saw abruptly. The sudden silence was deafening.

  "I didn't authorize any stops, Luna."

  "No, seriously. Important people. The kind who wear expensive cologne and don't step in puddles of blood."

  I looked up.

  A fleet of three black SUVs, armored and trimmed with gold, breached the police blockade as if the yellow tape were confetti. The vehicles stopped in a half-moon formation around the monster's carcass.

  On the doors, the unmistakable crest: a crown pierced by a sword.

  Sovereignty Guild. The elite of the elite. The owners of the city.

  "Shit," I sighed, peeling off my dirty gloves and snapping on a clean pair. "Pack up the saw, Luna. And hide the tablet."

  The door of the middle car opened. Out stepped not a warrior in full plate armor, but a man in an impeccable navy blue Italian suit. He adjusted his thin-rimmed glasses and walked toward us, ignoring the toxic mud with the arrogance of someone who has cleaning mages on their payroll.

  Commander Jin. Chief of Operations for Sovereignty.

  He had that symmetrical face and perfect skin that screamed "aesthetic treatments based on rejuvenation potions."

  "Step away from the carcass," Jin said. His voice wasn't loud, but projected with a slight touch of vocal mana to ensure everyone heard. "The Sovereignty Guild is assuming jurisdiction over this drop."

  Luna shrank behind me.

  "He's scary, Doctor. And there's a spirit stuck to his back that looks like a giant leech."

  "Quiet," I whispered.

  I took a step forward, blocking his view of the incision we had made in the skull.

  "Good afternoon, Commander. I’m afraid there’s a misunderstanding. The Sanitation Division has already initiated Protocol 44. Biological dismantling is underway. By municipal laws, once the knife touches the flesh, the monster is trash, not property."

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Jin stopped two meters from me. He looked me up and down, his eyes scanning my viscera-stained jumpsuit with palpable disdain.

  "Arthur Veras," he said my name as if it were a disease. "The 'Doctor.' I should have known it was you. Only someone with your... morbid fetish would be so eager to wallow in the guts of a defective Wyvern."

  "Defective?" I raised an eyebrow. "So Sovereignty admits the monster wasn't in normal combat condition? That would explain why the Solar Knight had to incinerate 60% of the valuable hide. Trying to hide something, Jin?"

  The bureaucrat's eyes narrowed.

  "Watch your tongue, garbage man. We are confiscating the body for reasons of National Security. There is suspicion that this Wyvern carries a new variant of magical plague."

  A lie.

  My internal parasite vibrated. It could sense the fluctuation in Jin's heartbeat. The man was lying, but the lie was well-rehearsed.

  "If it's a plague," I retorted, crossing my arms, "then it's my jurisdiction. I'm the senior pathologist. If you take this now, without proper decontamination, and spread spores all over Avenida Paulista, the fine will bankrupt even your guild."

  Jin smiled. A cold, corporate smile.

  "We have our own specialists. And they don't work in an open-air butcher shop."

  He snapped his fingers.

  Two "porters"—Rank C brutes wearing cargo exoskeletons—hopped down from the support trucks. They shoved Luna aside (she let out an indignat squeak) and began attaching tow hooks to the Wyvern's carcass.

  "You can't do that!" Luna protested. "We haven't even finished filling out Form 7B!"

  "The form has been revoked." Jin pulled out a silk handkerchief and covered his nose, stepping closer to me. "Arthur, be a good boy and go back to your hole. If I hear that you recorded anything other than 'death by combat' in your report... well, accidents happen in morgues. Formaldehyde is highly flammable."

  He turned around, showing me his back, certain of his victory.

  The Sovereignty team hoisted the Wyvern. The gigantic body was dragged inside a dimensional transport container, taking all the evidence with it.

  Or almost all of it.

  As the truck drove away and the police lights returned to normal, Luna kicked a rock in anger.

  "I hate them! They took the bonus, they took the meat, and they took the credit! Doctor, we worked for free! And that guy... his aura was rotten!"

  I started stripping off my jumpsuit, revealing civilian clothes underneath. My expression was calm.

  "We didn't work for free, Luna."

  "How is that? They took the whole Wyvern!"

  I reached into the inner pocket of my coat and pulled out a small airtight glass vial.

  Inside, floating in a bluish stabilizing solution, was a piece of gray tissue, about the size of a walnut.

  Luna's eyes went wide.

  "You... when did you grab that?"

  "While he was doing his villain monologue. Basic sleight of hand." I pocketed the vial. "It's a piece of the monster's pituitary gland. The part responsible for hormonal regulation and... induced growth."

  "Gross. You stole the beast's brain right from under Jin's nose?"

  "I recovered a biohazard sample, technically." I smiled, a smile that didn't reach my eyes. "Jin made a classic mistake of someone who only sees numbers and profits. He forgot that in biology, you don't need the whole body to discover the cause of death. A single cell tells the whole story."

  I walked toward our old, dented SCD van.

  "Come on, Luna. I'm hungry."

  "Oh no..." Luna paled, stopping in the middle of the street. "When you say 'hungry' after a collection, it's never pizza."

  I opened the van door and tossed the equipment in the back.

  "I know a place that will make a great preparation with this gland. We need to know what kind of alchemy they used to create this monster. And the only way to figure out the ingredients..."

  "...is by tasting it," Luna finished, defeated, climbing into the passenger seat. "I hate when we go to Madame Gristle's. The food there bites back."

  I started the engine. The radio played a generic pop song about hunters saving the day. I turned it off with a punch to the dashboard.

  The Sovereignty Guild thought they had cleaned up the crime scene. But they missed the most important detail: the pathologist had an appetite.

  "Next stop: Culinary Underworld," I announced, stepping on the gas.